$1000 are you nuts!!!!
What I did was to take a day off from school and tour all the junkyards
for a rack and pinion. I finally got one for about $220 from a 45,000
mile wrecked audi. and It came with a 180 day parts guarentee! I had
a local garage (off-road vehicle repair shop acually) put the rack in the
car for about $ 100, bringing the cost to 320. You might want to try that.
And secondly, once you have a new rack, dont make the mistake many of
my friends have made, putting generic steering oil in the rack, buy the
genuine stuff from your dealer for about $18 per liter. The generic stuff
eats through the rack seals, and makes them leak.
Good luck.
P.S: mu used rack has had NO problems what so ever